March 11: Ikebana? Nisebana?
On a beautiful Spring day, we had a Ikebana or shall we call it the Nisebana (fake flower) lesson in Buds. Both girls and boys showed their talent! Here is what we did today…
Tissue Paper Art
Inspired by the book we read last week, Growing Vegetable Soup, we started talking about where our food comes from. Yesterday, we even planted our own food with Liezel. So on a white sheet of paper, we added the soil part using brown and black tissue paper. K and C were super dedicated at this table, spending a long time putting glue on the paper and filling up the white space with dark colors.
Pots, Mud and Flowers
Liezel was our Ikebana teacher for today. First, R helped mix grated coffee beans in our play dough to make it more soil–looking. Then into recycled plant pots, we put some ‘soil’ and decorated it with ‘flowers.’ Of course some coffee beans spilt on the floor and on the table. Anything can turn on our creative minds, J started drawing pictures using his fingers like sand art. J was very happy with his pot and soil, he tried different kinds of flowers in it. On the side, R and S did some snip snap activity, remembering the cutting activity from yesterday. It is always so much more meaningful when our play is continuous.
Obstacle Courses
Open ended play like obstacle courses can turn into anything. At one point, when T was sitting on Erika’s lap reading a book on tiger, the cushions were like cozy rugs in the library. When J and H sat with Erika, the cushion turned into a roller coaster ride! Ahhhhhhh! K and W had good fun with the tunnel and making secret plans against the wall. On the other hand, S was no so bothered by big plays and preferred the quiet play in the dolly corner. We are all different and it is okay 👍
Circle Time
We usually start our circle time with a particular song and when we hear that song, it is a cue to gather around the circle. Our latest song is Clap Your Hands by Lynne Pilbrow and Ian Blake. The Wiggles’ songs are always popular and today we made a Fruit Salad. We had such great ideas to toss in some “carrots,” “lettuce” and “apples” in our special fruit salad. Since we were ‘mixing’ the fruits (and veggies), rolling our hands and arms, we did more finger songs including Ito Maki Maki, Family Fingers and Open Shut Them. We love using our little fingers!
When singing our Good Morning song, most of us know how to say our own names and even if we are still learning to, we would always get a warm help from our peers. Today, triggered by J some of us wanted to be more inventive so here is how we introduced ourselves…
“No…J J!”
“W W”
“J!”
“C”
“Princess” (J)
“I want to be a princess too!” ()
“Kitty chan” (R)
“K”
“H”
“L”
“K”
“S”
“T….no it’s T”
“Crocodile” (S)
We recalled what we did yesterday with Liezel. Hmm…what did we do? It is not so easy to remember the things that happened the day before…but when Tamara brought over our plastic cups…! Aha! According to R, we put in “sugar” in the cups or “dirt” as T corrected the class. Remember we also put something else in there, it was something very small, something called, “S…EED.” Yes, we put in some seeds, different kinds in each cup – carrots, lettuce, flower and spinach. At that moment, we realized that we had forgotten to water the seeds so we each took a turn to use a spraying bottle. Now all we have to do is to wait. We wonder what will happen inside our cups 🪴 In a way to sum up our talk on “planting,” we sang a Japanese song called ちいさなにわ (chiisana niwa) and it was already time to get ready for snack!
Park Time
Today, we had our snacks, a little early because we planned to go to….Ameshiro Park, a park near the Azabujuban square. After leaving our Ohana gate, instead of turning left, we turned right and we walked on the Azabujuban main street. We passed by the bakery shop that we visited with Erika and we also passed the yummy looking Gelato shop, the supermarket and the coffee shop, Dean & Deluca where apparently C lives with her mom😂. There were so many interesting things happening on the streets that we were at the park before we noticed! It is always nice to explore new places but this one was particularly fun with big and long slides! We kept climbing up the stairs, down the slides and all over again while L enjoyed the smooth texture of the sand. It was a short and sweet stay and we would definitely want to go back there again!
Thank you for another flower–full day!
Love from all the children in Buds